Lookback: Original White House bowling lanes were born at Brunswick in Muskegon as gift to President Truman

The Brunswick plant that built them may be gone, but the “super deluxe” lanes donated to President Harry S. Truman on his 63rd birthday are still in use in Washington, D.C.

Muskegon became the center of the bowling universe when Brunswick-Balke-Collender completed construction of this $1 million ($8 million today) pinsetter plant in 1959.MLive.com file photo

The lanes survived Truman’s successor Dwight D. Eisenhower’s attempt to have them junked by an outcry from the 80 or so members of the White House Bowling League. Made up largely of Secret Service agents and White House gardeners, the league got far more use out the local product than Truman apparently ever did.

Truman took his daily exercise in the form of long, early-morning walks and his preferred form of recreation was poker -- perhaps the real origin of his famous “The Buck Stops Here” slogan.

Likely Truman preferred the term “West Wing” to the phrase “Left Wing” as published in the 1947 Muskegon Chronicle story announcing the local connection to the lanes donated to the president by the people of Missouri.

It took Eisenhower two years after taking office in 1953 to rid the White House of the lanes, despite, perhaps, the vigorous protests of Vice President Richard M. Nixon. To placate the members of the popular White House bowling league, Eisenhower had the lanes moved to the Old Executive Office Building, where they remain today.

The first sitting president to visit Muskegon, Harry S. Truman, his daughter Margaret and wife Bess arrived downtown at the C&O Railroad station at 7:50 a.m. on Oct. 30, 1952. Less than a week later, Truman lost his bid for re-election to Dwight D. Eisenhower.MLive.com file photo

Ike’s mimeograph room replaced the bowling alleys in the West Wing basement that President Robert F. Kennedy later converted into the Situation Room following the botched Bay of Pigs invasion. The National Security Council and President now monitor national and international crises in what was once a recreation room.

In another delightful bit of irony, the lanes are now closely associated with the two presidents who showed the least amount of interest in the sport: The Harry S. Truman Bowling Center is now located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Whether Nixon was truly distressed when Ike took the lanes out, one of the first things Tricky Dick did after his inauguration in 1969 was have a bowling alley installed in a workspace below the driveway leading to the North Portico. Avid keglers both, Nixon and his wife Pat often disappeared downstairs to roll a few frames.

Founded in Cleveland by a Swiss immigrant in 1845, Brunswick relocated its manufacturing facility and 87 employees to Muskegon in 1906. By 1929 the company employed 2,700 in a 1.3 million-square-foot factory on Laketon Avenue.

Beginning in the 1980s, Brunswick began outsourcing manufacturing to plants overseas. Production ended here in 2006, although company headquarters and research and development facilities remain in Muskegon.

This week, 66 years ago…

President Harry S. Truman left three pins standing with the first ball he rolled down the White House lanes manufactured at here in Muskegon. Whether he left a split or attempted to pick up the spare is lost in the fog of time.

On May 5, 1947 the Chronicle said,

BOWLING ALLEYS MADE HERE GIFT TO PRESIDENT TRUMAN

Two “super deluxe” bowling alleys made by Muskegon employees of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company will be presented to President Truman as a birthday gift on Thursday it was reported by William F. Pyper, Washington correspondent of the Chronicle.

A crowd estimated at 20,000 turned out on Oct. 30, 1952, for President Harry S. Trumanâs whistle-stop speech in Muskegon less than a week before he lost his bid for re-election.MLive.com file photo

The alleys, believed the finest every made at the Muskegon plant, are being presented to the President by friends who desire to remain anonymous, White House Press Secretary Charles G. Ross announced to newsmen.

The alleys and 10 balls, including a specially designed left-handed ball for Mr. Truman, have been shipped to the White House and now are being installed in the basement of the left wing, under the executive offices, by L.S. Winslow, White House architect. The space previously held old files.

Mr. Ross and other leading aides of the President were not forgotten. One of the balls made here was for the press secretary. Others for whom balls were specified in the order were: Gen Clark M. Clifford, military aide; Adm. James F. Foskett, Naval aide; Gen. Harry Vaughn, personal aide; Gen. Wallace H. Graham, the President’s physician and John R. Steelman, legal advisor.

The alleys will provide relaxation for the President and other leaders, Mr. Ross indicated.

Last year, Congress denied the President a proposed enlargement of the White House executive wing which he said was imperative because of inadequate space. The President’s complaint, however, was that some White House employees were required to spend all their working hours underground in space such as the bowling alleys will now fill.

It is expected to be a little while before the President gets into top form, since he hasn’t bowled since he was 19 years old, according to Secretary Ross.

The alleys will remain at the White House as a government possession after Mr. Truman leaves office, Mr. Ross said. The press secretary didn’t answer the jocular questions of reporters as to whether there would be tournaments and ladies’ nights on the White House alleys.